Using sports as a focus for ministry, James Naismith invented basketball to teach athletes Christian moral values.
When a young physical education teacher invented a new game in December 1891, he was looking for more than exercise. To James Naismith, basketball had loftier goals than that.
In 1891, while working at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Training School, later Springfield College, Naismith was given the assignment of developing a game that could be played indoors between the football and baseball seasons. The environment of the late 1800s was receptive to a new sport. Cities were overflowing with new immigrants who were getting their first taste of democracy. Health and sanitation conditions were deplorable; education was minimal. And from Naismith’s perspective, the need for a Christian witness to all these people was evident. Perhaps, he could reach this wide range of people with a new game. As a committed Christian, he wanted to invent a game that would provide a means for him and others to lead other young men to a personal relationship with God.
Pain Marked Life of Inventor
To understand basketball is to understand the life of its inventor. James Naismith was 9 years old when he was told that both of his parents were dying of typhoid fever. He was raised by his Uncle Peter, who was stern and demanding. Death always seemed near. His brother, Robbie, died at 18 from appendicitis. While he lay dying, Robbie implored Jim to kill him to ease the pain. “You wouldn’t see a rabbit suffer like this,” he screamed at Jim the night he died. Years later, while Naismith was instructing a gym class, one of his students flipped carelessly, landed on his head, and died. And his wife, Maude, who also became gravely ill with typhoid yet survived, became deaf because of her ordeal. To James Naismith, these events were things that happened within God’s providence. He saw his personal experiences as part of life in a fallen world.
